Why am I so bad at ring games?

I feel as if im fairly good at MTT's. I feel I can hold my own in SnG's too. Why the hell can I not do anything right in ring games tho?

Even when I have a hand theres always someone at the table hitting raise over and over and over. Is there any special strategy to adopt or what? I feel its a side to poker I really dislike and avoid playing unless its just to waste some time etc.

Help!?

I assume you`re talking about full-table ring games ?

They are all about patience, and need a different approach from tournies.

In a tourney, the blinds rise and force action. You must get stuck in at some point, it`s about picking your moment.

In a ring game, it`s perfectly possible to play only one hand in 40 or 50 and still turn a profit. There`s a single important principle to keep repeating to yourself:

You can`t lose money on a hand you don`t play.

It was when I got my head around that and started playing really tight (but aggressive when holding cards) that I became a winning player at full-table ring games.

If your table is full of donks who raise with poor hands that`s good. Don`t try to play them at their own game. Sit back and wait until you hit a hand. They will bet into you and pay you off.

Yeah, I suppose. For some odd reason I always feel inclined to play stupid hands on the off chance I can catch the donkeys out. I guess I could try and chill out and see what comes my way.

Try this:

This is approximately the pre-flop hand selection I use myself in a loose ring game.

Early Position - Pairs JJ or better, AK. Bin everything else.

Middle Position - add AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ

Late Position - add AT, Small Pairs, Suited Connectors 76 or better, Ax suited.

Vary this according to your read of the table. You might add QJ and JT from late position if the players to your left are not too manic, or you might drop the suited connectors etc. if there is a player to your left routinely raising you.

You`ll see that this is really very few hands except from late position. This way, you`re not limping and losing a lot of blinds to LAG players acting after you. Makes it possible to sit cheaply at the table for a long time while waiting for a monster.

Playing tight will definitely work if you have the patience. If you want to make it more interesting, try multi-tabling, which will make it a lot easier to throw away junk like A7 or KT.
I actually play looser at loose low stakes tables. (Am playing micros at the moment on Party because bankroll there has taken a turn for the worse...!) Not really loose, but entering about 28% of pots, compared to a more normal 15-20%. It pays to see lots of flops because you get great implied odds (i.e. you'll get paid off if you hit), and even if you don't hit, you're likely to get some free cards since other players are not aggressive.

look at ring games as if they were a SnG, It all relies on patience to make any profit there, just beware of the numerous donks at the micro-limits, and by the way it sounds to me that is the limit your playing at, so if your bankroll allows it, move up a limit where some donks are afraid to tread and good luck.

shinedown.45 said:

look at ring games as if they were a SnG, It all relies on patience to make any profit there, just beware of the numerous donks at the micro-limits, and by the way it sounds to me that is the limit your playing at, so if your bankroll allows it, move up a limit where some donks are afraid to tread and good luck.

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i was going to say the same thing i always play ring games like a sit and go. even if they are fo low money amounts because chances are the people in these low money amounts just won a bit of change in a tourney and are trying to build it up, so they won't play in the ring for to long. play tight at first and try and be patient

Limit games/ring/side games is where most of the pro's make most of their money.............Barry is probably the best if not one of the best at ring/side games. PATIENCE is #1 in these games...............Rock

Cheers guys, much appreciated advice!

I was playing at low level tables and I had about 5 donks at them. I make a hand and they go in over and over with K plus a random low card and hit their K on the turn or river. Horrid!

Get Poker Tracker and at the end of each session, sort the hands by net amount won, and go through all the hands where you lost money. Work out whether you made a mistake or if you just got unlucky. Really helps in plugging gaps in your game.

The main reason why most people cant handle Cash Games compared to tournies is because you have to be a GOOD player to be successful at cash games.

Most people can bundle their way through tournies playing badly or semi good and still manage to grind their bankroll out for a long while. In Cash Games, you need to play well consistently and win consistently to stay alive.

There aren't very many good players out there and therefore most people who think they are good in tournaments, are terrible in cash games...

No strategy will work in Cash Games, you need to play people and position and vary your play alot. This all comes from experience. But once you are a good poker player, you can make alot of cash from the cash game tables!

Good Luck!

So while im in the fetal position does anyone else want a kick?

Egon...thanks for that 'selection of cards' will give it a try...

LadyLoon said:

Egon...thanks for that 'selection of cards' will give it a try...

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You`re welcome.

But remember that hand selection is only one-quarter of the battle. To be a winner you need to play well on Flop, Turn and River also. Make sure you read and digest the stategy guides and maybe some of the hand analysis threads here at CC.

Ok will do that... thanks

Ring games are all about post-flop play. In SnGs as well as the late stages of MTTs there's so much pushing all-in or raising before the flop that represents large amounts of player's stacks. SnGs especially are a lot more cut and dry and luck dependent. I've only now started to realize how much I've been missing out on by not playing cash games, because even if you get an unlucky flop, you're not having to go all-in preflop so often so you can't combat it by reading their bets and making good plays. If you haven't, read a cash game book or Harrington on Hold 'Em volume 1. Even though HoH is for tournaments, a great deal of it applies to cash games.

combuboom said:

Ring games are all about post-flop play. In SnGs as well as the late stages of MTTs there's so much pushing all-in or raising before the flop that represents large amounts of player's stacks. SnGs especially are a lot more cut and dry and luck dependent. I've only now started to realize how much I've been missing out on by not playing cash games, because even if you get an unlucky flop, you're not having to go all-in preflop so often so you can't combat it by reading their bets and making good plays. If you haven't, read a cash game book or Harrington on Hold 'Em volume 1. Even though HoH is for tournaments, a great deal of it applies to cash games.

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Agreed. That's why I don't much like MTTs: so much all-inning and hoping for the best. S+Gs are OK because you get a good period of deep-stacked poker at the start so long as they have a good structure, as on Party or Stars (but not PokerRoom)... but deep stacked cash games are what NLHE is really all about, with much more skill and variety of skills involved.